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Comment on Google's plan to restrict sideloading on Android has a potential escape hatch for users

I understand exactly what people think the issue is. I don’t understand or agree with any of the logic. Google did not invent the term. Apple did not invent the term. There’s nothing in the term itself to imply anything nefarious. It’s nothing but a word used to describe apps installed from outside the default store. When 99-100% of users are all installing exclusively from the default store, it makes sense to have a term that describes that.

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sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Installing software without a store was just called installing software.

Sideloading is when you download from the side, e.g. downloading software from a separate device instead of from the internet or physical media.

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- Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  downloading software from a separate device
  
  It isn’t.
  
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  - sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Why do you think it’s not?
    
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    Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    Because it’s not? I can show you 100 sources that say it’s not, can you show me one that says otherwise?
    
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EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
Google is twisting the word to justify their purpose of preventing people from installing anything that isn’t from their walled garden. So anything that sounds even close to support for that motive is going to be met with pushback, even if it is a word that existed before Google’s use of it. Google’s implicitly saying that installing something from anywhere other than their store is something nefarious or otherwise bad/risky. Google is trying to perform the same kind of security theatre as the US with the NSA at airports.

Honestly, it doesn’t matter to me where you install an app from because you’re simply installing it. Whether that’s from Google’s storefront, Apple’s, or somewhere else, you’re installing an app. The circumstances where I’d need a term to specifically say that I’m installing an app from outside the default app store would also be covered by simply saying “I got it from GitHub (or wherever).” It takes the same energy to answer the question of where you got it from regardless of whether you say that you installed it or you side loaded it.

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- Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  Google is twisting the word
  
  How is it being twisted? They’re using it in exactly the way it is intended to be used?
  
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  - EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    By justifying getting rid of it as “security concerns”. This is the first time the average user will have heard the term, so it will be linked in their head to this and therefore as risky/dangerous and they won’t question why Google would want to make it harder, if not impossible, for people to install apps or other software without Google’s explicit permission.
    
    The walls around the garden get taller, and those inside won’t question why there aren’t any doors.
    
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    Ulrich@feddit.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    By justifying getting rid of it as “security concerns”.
    
    That has absolutely nothing to do with what you said. What you said is that they were “twisting the word”. Once again, they’re using it in exactly the way it is intended to be used.
    
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